By Shayna Jacobs and Jon Schuppe
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — An Upper West Side financial adviser whose death in a bathtub is now being investigated as murder was afraid of her husband, and now her family fears for her children's safety, court documents show.
The family of Shele Danishefsky Covlin, who was found slumped in the bathtub last New Year's Eve by her 9-year-old daughter, is fighting for custody of her two children, saying that she worried that her husband, Rod Covlin, would kill her, according to documents filed in Surrogate's Court.
In an affidavit filed in New York State court, a lawyer for Danishefsky Covlin's brother, Philip Danishefsky, called the circumstances “highly suspicious.”
Shortly before she died, Danishefsky Covlin changed her company-sponsored insurance policy to remove husband Covlin as her beneficiary, according to the affidavit.
“Upon information and belief, (Shele Danishefsky Covlin) stated that she was fearful for her life, believed Rod intended to kill her and that there was some urgency to make the changes to her will,” the affidavit says.
Danishefsky Covlin, a 47-year-old senior vice president for investments and private wealth advisor at UBS Wealth Management, was embroiled in a divorce battle with her husband when she was found dead in her West 68th Street bathroom.
Police at the time said her injuries, including lacerations on the back of her head, appeared to be “consistent with a fall.”
Because she and her family were Orthodox Jews, they refused an autopsy on religious grounds.
But court filings show that within weeks of her death, family members had started to suspect that it was not an accident.
As questions lingered, her relatives asked to have her body exhumed and studied.
After a five-week review, the medical examiner’s office concluded on Thursday that Danishefsky Covlin was killed. The cause of death, the office said, was “neck compression,” which in layman's terms means she was strangled.
Now the district attorney’s office has opened a homicide investigation. And, because of the divorce proceedings, investigators reportedly want to talk with her husband, Rod Covlin.
Philip Danishefsky has already obtained a court order limiting contact with his son and daughter, who are now living with Rod Covlin’s parents. Philip Danishefsky is also trying to block Rod Covlin from inheriting his wife’s estate.
Covlin, a backgammon expert, has worked for several stock-trading companies. An online biography says he has degrees from both Columbia and Fordham universities.
